Cityscape • February 2022 • LEADERSHIP FOCUS

Everywhere, people are experiencing change. Whether it’s in our processes, tools, or even whom we report to and what work we are being asked to do, changes are happening. There are many areas where leadership can do more to help the people deal with change. One of the most powerful and important is how as leaders, we decide and communicate decisions.

Most changes start with an idea. A decision is made after that idea is researched, analyzed and vetted. There is a difference between an idea and a decision. Ideas are just ideas until they are not. Once a decision is made, action can start.

How clear are the decisions on your team? Are your people clear about what decisions have been made? Do you know what things are awaiting a decision? Is it clear to everyone that the leadership is in full alignment around those decisions? If not, what can you do to improve this situation?

There is a strong correlation between decision-making and people on our teams feeling empowered. In the absence of decisions, people are waiting. As a result, there is pent-up performance in the team because of leadership and their inability to decide. Some leaders may avoid decisions because they fear they will make the wrong one, but indecision will likely cost an organization even more. Without decisions, people don’t know whether to go left or right, so they operate in the relative safety of the middle. If something comes across a person’s desk, but they don’t have the direction to confidently work on it, it’s likely they won’t work on it and will prioritize those activities where they do have clarity of direction. So there the work sits, waiting, waiting, waiting, costing a lot and yet no one may see it. Even a wrong decision is better than no decision because at least the organization is in it together, can learn from it, and then restart from the same place. But when a decision IS made and something comes across my desk, even if things aren’t 100% crystal clear, but I know where we are headed, I will work on it. I will feel empowered and confident to take action.

Leaders and employees see change differently. Leaders have a view from the top of the organization and see change as a single bolt of lightning that goes straight to the ground. “We are acquiring, merging, entering into a new line of business, adopting a new technology.” Leaders see a singular change event and are very far away from the nuance of the many details that will need to be worked out within the change event.

Employees impacted by these changes see them very differently. From where they sit, they question all of those details. To impacted employees, it looks more like 18 bolts of lighting and accompanying shreds of light coming off of each one. For each change, they need to know why it’s happening, when it will happen, what is expected of them and how they will be trained. Am I still valued and can I be successful? They need 100 different questions answered, or rather 100 different decisions made, in order to confidently move forward. For each big lightning-bolt-decision a leader makes, “We are going to acquire, merge, enter a new line of business, adopt a new technology,” underneath that decision are 100 more decisions, and beneath those decisions are 20 more decisions.

• First, establish a Decision List. Listen for and write down decisions as they are made.

• Facilitate decision-making when needed. “Have you decided this or not? If not, when will you decide?”

• Check for alignment. “Are you aligned on this decision?” This is where things can go really wrong. It is easy to think we’re all aligned when in actuality, we are not.

Decision misalignment, unfortunately, is too easy. They were aligned, but now they are not! There are a lot of real things that can cause leadership to be out of decision alignment:

• Lack of buy-in. For whatever reason, someone is just not bought in, not for it, or against it.

• Misunderstanding and lack of communication. They discussed and agreed, but later someone had a question. They did not communicate, they did not go back and clarify, so they filled in the blanks with their own version.

• Assumptions. They are not even aware that they are out of alignment. The best cure for overcoming assumptions is active engagement and communication.

• Change of priorities. Yes, they agreed as an organization, but then they went back to their business unit. The priorities of their business do not align with that of the organization and that decision that they made together is no longer the most important.

So how do we manage the risk of decision misalignment? We go back to our invisible skillset and tools:

• If you see evidence of decisions pulling apart and splintering, document that data and log it as a risk.

• Facilitate the hard discussions. “Have we shifted? Where are we right now?”

“Change. Change. Change.” When we talk about change, it tends to be generic, difficult to act on and know what to do.

• Leadership: “Oh, by the way, in order to do so, we have decided that we are going to have to lay off 10% of our workforce.”

The devil is in the details. Decisions break down change and make it tangible. Don’t keep people waiting. Get clear, share what you know, and help people start making sense of what is going to happen as quickly as possible. It will completely change the conversation.

A very special thanks to Courtney Smock, Change Management consultant, trainer, and speaker at Slingshot25. Courtney is the facilitator of The Change Course (a development experience to increase your ability to influence, assess impact, and coach through change). If you have feedback or want to learn more about how Slingshot25 can help your teams, please feel free to contact her at courtney@slingshot25.com.